Glucosamine No Remedy for Lower Back Pain, Says Study

July 6, 2010

By JANE E. ALLEN ABC News Medical Unit

Glucosamine has looked like salvation to many people with joint pain, but it proved no better than a sugar pill at reducing pain, disability or improving quality of life in a study of people plagued by chronic lower back pain and degenerative osteoarthritis.

But the findings, published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, are unlikely to be the last word on glucosamine, which remains a popular alternative to prescription drugs and other traditional therapies. Although some research studies have found it doesn't help osteoarthritis, others suggest it may provide some mild benefit to painful osteoarthritis of the knees and hips.

Statistics attest to the supplement's widespread appeal. A 2007 federal survey of Americans' use of complementary and alternative medicine found that more than 6 million adults in the United States had taken glucosamine in the previous month. A study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in 2004, found that among women treated at New Mexico hospitals for joint and muscle pain, 25 percent of those with osteoarthritis used glucosamine.

Because a quarter of Americans with chronic low back pain turn at some point to glucosamine, researchers wanted to know more objectively if it could help. The latest findings came from Philip Wilkens at the Oslo University Hospital in Norway, a country where glucosamine is a prescription drug.

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For six months, he and his colleagues gave 250 adults with chronic lower back pain and degenerative osteoarthritis either 2,500 mg daily of glucosamine sulfate or a placebo. At the six-month and one-year marks, there weren't any significant differences among patients in the two groups. Both groups did seem to be helped by the placebo effect, which is common in pain patients, in which people apparently feel better simply because they are receiving treatment.

Despite mixed reviews to date for glucosamine, the Oslo study had the rigorous elements of being randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled. Previous studies using glucosamine for low back pain "have either been small in size, or had significant limitations in the design of the trial itself," said Timothy C. Birdsall, a naturopathic doctor and vice president of integrative medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Arizona.

Birdsall said that the study results would make him "much more likely to recommend they discontinue the glucosamine, and take other approaches to deal with the pain."

Other experts in integrative medicine, orthopedics, pain medicine and rehabilitation noted that the study didn't give patients glucosamine combined with chondroitin, which is how it's typically found at local pharmacies, health food stores or other retail sources.

But Wilkens defended the trial design, calling glucosamine "the main substance people use" and saying he was unaware of evidence "that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin is better." But, he added, "We realize a similar study is needed to answer the question about glucosamine in combination with chondroitin."